A fine morning walk
After
breakfast we explored a small gorge nearby that supposedly had
Aboriginal art. Didn't see any, but we did hear frogs in the small
spring fed pool (water in the desert!), saw pretty flowers, examined
interesting rock formations, climbed a hill to get a good view of the
surrounding countryside and checked out an old stone shepherd's hut.
All-in-all a much more pleasant experience than the established gorge
walk the day before.
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| Hmm,... it's gonna take a little work before it's ready to rent to college students |
Mr. Blinman has a mine, a town and a pool named after him
Blinman was a shepherd who found a chunk of copper one day in the
1860's and now has a town named after him. The mine never got very
big, all the ore was underground, but we did learn a little about the
whole process, and got a nice walk thrown in.
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| Blinman copper mine |
Driving down the Parachilna gorge road we took a couple hour hike in
104 F temperatures to the Blinman Ponds, afflicted again by flies,
but at least had the reward of a nice swim in a pool of 72 F water.
Diana didn't partake because she didn't want to wash off her
sunscreen, but we both got in a swim at a smaller pool just twenty
minutes shy of the car. I soaked my hat and shirt in the water, and
in the parched breezy air it actually felt cold. However, both were
dry by the time we got back to the car.
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| Diana standing among invasive Mexican cacti |
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| Kevin enjoying a well-earned swim in Blinman Pool |
Dinner at the Pioneer Hotel
We had dinner at the Pioneer Hotel, a roadhouse in Parachilna back on
the paved Stuart Highway leading to Alice Springs. They are
semi-famous for serving native animal and we had the "Feral Grill Sampler", which included emu filet, kangaroo filet, and camel sausage,
along with two teeny tiny grilled tomatoes and a small dollop of
mashed potatoes. The emu was very dark, tough and gamy, the camel
sausage, eh, it was sausage, and the roo filet tasty, rather like
venison. We've heard from a couple people that you should grill
kangaroo to medium rare only for it to be tender. This was and indeed
was tenderer. We shared a table with two retired Melbourne architects
who were returning from adventures in the Simpson Desert, and had a
lively conversation that lasted for two hours.
Going out to the tent for the night we saw the 3 km long coal train
that runs daily from the massive open pit mine in Leigh Creek to the
equally gigantic power station in Port Augusta, which generates 40%
of South Australia's electric power. Finally, as we prepared for
bed a terrific lightning storm came in from the western desert,
entertaining us and whipping up a fierce wind that threatened our
poor old tent. But all survived for another day.
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| The Pioneer Hotel |
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| Which one is emu? |
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